Word, PowerPoint and Excel Tutorials.
Discover the hidden secrets of Word, PowerPoint and Excel to support learners!
It's amazing the things you can do in Word, PowerPoint and Excel.
For example, in MS Word it is possible to create colourful cloze tasks, plan essays and projects using mind mapping as well as incorporate audio and video to capture the imagination of your learners.
The are many advantages of using Office over other software programs, which can often be replicated in Word, PowerPoint or Excel. For example:
- there are thousands of free images, clip art and audio which can be downloaded for free from the Microsoft web site,
- colourful templates can also be downloaded for free,
- you can quickly build up a portfolio of resources which can be easily edited and customised to suit different needs,
- Word and PowerPoint can easily be customised to be accessible to learners with additional support needs.
Creating colourful banner headings in Word
Why not add some spice to your Word documents and bring some life to them? 
Word, PowerPoint and Excel offer a range of tools which can add life and colour to your worksheets.
The first place to start is to see if you have Word's 'Drawing' toolbar available on your screen. It should look similar to the one below:
If you can't see it on your screen then follow these step to make it available:
- Open MS Word
- Select the View menu (or Alt+V)
- Select 'Toolbars' from the drop down menu
- Select the 'Drawing' option. The 'Drawing' toolbar should now be available.
The Drawing toolbar gives you access to a range of tools, for example, Word Art, diagrams, 3-D shapes etc.
Find out how you can make your own colourful banners in Word by selecting the link below which contains a step-by-step tutorial. This will open in a new browser window. The download time will be dependent on the speed of your Internet connection. You will also need the Flash player to run the tutorial.
Creating a colourful banner heading in Word step-by-step tutorial
Using form fields to make cloze activities
With a bit of imagination you can use form fields in Word to create cloze activities. One great feature of fields is the ability to handle multiple-choice answers. You can make a long or short list of possible answers that will appear when the user clicks on the grey box.
Cloze activities can be colourful and engaging. They are also a great way to help learners with spelling, picture/word matching ( for English as an Additional Language EAL), and for sums, similar to the examples below.
Cloze activity to support literacy
Cloze activity using sums
How do I create a cloze activity?
Creating a cloze activity is really quite simple. The link below contains a step-by-step tutorial. This will open in a new browser window. The download time will be dependent on the speed of your Internet connection. You will also need the Flash player to run the tutorial.
To watch a step-by-step tutorial select this link
Visit the Better Living Through Technology web site to view a tutorial
Incorporating audio and video into Word
Using MS Word can be an invaluable tool to engage learners who have limited attention span or have difficulties with reading. By incorporating audio and video into Word it can transform a 'boring' word processor into an innovative learning resource.
Video
Using video in Word as a learning resource: a case study
The example below was used with a group of 2nd year pupils who were exploring issues surrounding bullying. Pupils were encouraged to work in groups and decide whether or not the 'situations' they were presented with were bullying or not. The first situation was a video clip and the second situation was based around an audio clip.
After each situation pupils were asked to enter text or choose from drop down form fields as part of the learning activity. This then formed the basis of a discussion. Feedback from pupils was extremely positive particularly among those pupils who found 'traditional' learning methods disengaging.
The video in the example below is active. To play the video press the play or arrow button.
Video resources
Video resources, particularly educational videos, can be downloaded and used royalty free from a many web sites, for example - Newsfilm Online.
Newsfilm Online promises to be one of the most exciting resources ever offered to education in the UK. 3,000 hours of television news and cinema newsreels, taken from the huge collection of the ITN/Reuters archive is to be made available online in high quality format for teaching, learning and research. Newsfilm Online will be a gateway of unmatched richness to nearly one hundred years of news, from the 1910s to the present day. To find out more visit Newsfilm Online
Audio
For example, it is possible to record a narrative in Word to supplement a text based document.
The Word template (free download - link below) can be used in a number of ways, for example, setting questions and asking learners to 'speak' or record their answer or simply recording your own voice to support the written information.
To download the 'Speak My Answer' template, right click and select the 'Save Target As' option.
To use the template follow the instructions below:
- locate the 'Speak my answer' toolbar, similar to the illustration below:
- place the cursor at the point you would like your narration/answer to be, for example on the dotted line.
- click the 'Speak my answer toolbar - when the 'Sound Object' box appears select the red recording button.
- record the narration/answer.
- Click on the speaker icon to play back the narration/answer.
Audio resources
Similar to video there are also a number of freely available audio resources.
One example is Archival Sound Recordings which contains a massive bank of digitised sound recordings for use in education and research and features a huge range of material, including classical and popular music, radio drama, oral history, and field and location recordings of traditional music. For more details take your mouse – and your ears - to…
PowerPoint multiple choice template
PowerPoint can used in a variety of contexts for learning. One of it's main advantages is that it is extremely flexible.
An example of this is using PowerPoint for multiple choice. You can download the PowerPoint template from the link below.
Once you have downloaded the file you can edit it to suit your purposes.
To see an example of a multiple choice template select this link
The multiple choice template will work with touch screens, white boards etc but is only compatible with Windows XP or 2003.
To edit the PowerPoint multiple choice template:
- Click on any of the questions. Type in a question of your choice.
- You can move the 'Correct' / 'Try again' to match up the questions/answers.
- It is also possible to change the shape, colour of the questions.
- To quickly insert a new multiple choice question select 'Insert' and 'Duplicate' slide.
To download the PowerPoint multiple choice template click here
Interactive spreadsheet
Did you know that Excel can be used as an interactive learning resource? Assist-I.T. have a range of free examples (crosswords, times tables) which can be downloaded from the Learning Resources section.
Using the free template that can be downloaded from the Assist-I.T. site, the following tutorial will give you a step-by-step guide to editing an existing template.
Training
These tutorials make up part of the 101 Ways of Using Office to Support Learners. If you would like to discover more about the hidden secrets of MS Office please get in touch to arrange a training session.
To arrange a training session get in touch: info@assist-it.org.uk
Tel: 0771 704 2670